What do the Foreign Affairs Police do besides deport people?

Everybody talks about how the foreign affairs police are the people that are gone to whenever a foreign worker is caught working illegally. I also know that they come when you have a traffic incident with a local. Everybody talks about these things. What I want to know is how they help foreigners, should you need them. I can’t imagine all there is to their job is catching foreigners and having them thrown out of the country. They must be of some use to you, should you be the victim of a crime or need some sort of legal help. What else do they do? And how do they help foreigners :ponder: ?

I suspect their job is not to serve foreigners, but protect locals from us.

They roam around bars in civilian clothes where foreigners hangout.

Yup.

They also pronounce da ma “mary j wanna”.

They also collect red envelopes. Probably the most NB part of the job.

They give you their personal cell-phone number and ask you to call them if you have any problems.

Foreign Affairs officers attend to any police matter involving a foreigner. Does that make them a help or a hindrance? Depends on what side of the law you most often reside. As for me, I’ve always found them to be helpful. I’ve even known friends who kept contact info for FA officers on their cellphones. They found a call to them would yield a quicker, better response than calling local police direct.

They often hinder things.

I caught a burglar once. I went to the police station and waited 2 hours for the FAP to turn up because the local police insisted on it. They sat there while I made a report in Chinese because their English wasn’t very good.
It turned a 2 hour report into a 4 hour report for nothing. And the burglar, well, I don’t know what happened because they didn’t follow up on the case, and if they did, they didn’t tell me.
They were very nice and bought me coffee, and we exchanged details and had a laugh, but I’d rather have been doing something else.
This was when I first came to Taiwan, so things might have improved or changed since then. It is reassuring when they arrive, even if they are of little use, you feel you are being represented.

I think they are mainly there to ensure everything goes well and you are treated fairly, and provide a point of contact should you need some advice or assistance with dealing with matters involving the police in Taiwan.

[quote=“Super Hans”]They often hinder things.

I caught a burglar once. I went to the police station and waited 2 hours for the FAP to turn up because the local police insisted on it. They sat there while I made a report in Chinese because their English wasn’t very good.
It turned a 2 hour report into a 4 hour report for nothing. And the burglar, well, I don’t know what happened because they didn’t follow up on the case, and if they did, they didn’t tell me.
They were very nice and bought me coffee, and we exchanged details and had a laugh, but I’d rather have been doing something else.
This was when I first came to Taiwan, so things might have improved or changed since then. It is reassuring when they arrive, even if they are of little use, you feel you are being represented.

I think they are mainly there to ensure everything goes well and you are treated fairly, and provide a point of contact should you need some advice or assistance with dealing with matters involving the police in Taiwan.[/quote]

You got free coffee? Now that’s service! :thumbsup:

Besides deporting people, i hear that they also detain them for sometime as well.

I think the reason you are detained for most things is that the FAP are off doing something else when you are brought in and you have to wait for them. If they are not coming back until the next morning, that means spending the night in jail.

I called them once after a fender bender. We (the local police and the guy who hit my car) expedited the whole thing before they even showed up.

Maybe they are so used to the way foreigners do things that they were too busy drinking coffee and eating donuts.

One other thing that they will do is show up and help the local police who have arrested you interrogate you while pretending to be your English speaking friend who is ‘here to help you.’ This is of course complete lie.

They are the police too and all they are trying to do is get you to make incriminating statements that can and will be used against you. They will lie and tell you if you just sign the statement, you can go home and there will be no problem. Six weeks later, you will get your indictment and go to court.

You don’t have to say anything to the police including the Foreign Affairs Police. Just keep your mouth shut. Anything you do say will be distorted and held against you. Ignore the threats of the regular police (‘You will be in prison for 20 years if you don’t answer my questions’) and ignore the offers to ‘help’ from the FAP.

Have you been told this before?

[quote=“Feiren”]One other thing that they will do is show up and help the local police who have arrested you interrogate you while pretending to be your English speaking friend who is ‘here to help you.’ This is of course complete lie.

They are the police too and all they are trying to do is get you to make incriminating statements that can and will be used against you. They will lie and tell you if you just sign the statement, you can go home and there will be no problem. Six weeks later, you will get your indictment and go to court.

You don’t have to say anything to the police including the Foreign Affairs Police. Just keep your mouth shut. Anything you do say will be distorted and held against you. Ignore the threats of the regular police (‘You will be in prison for 20 years if you don’t answer my questions’) and ignore the offers to ‘help’ from the FAP.[/quote]
I agree with this statement. They are very friendly at first so you will go along with what they want you to do. They did tell me that I have the right to remain silent and didn’t say they would throw me in jail for twenty years though.
Get a lawyer, if you need one.

Actually the FAP told me it is best to cooperate with them. They said just sign, sign, sign and they will let me go, but I think they were encouraging me to sign things that would incriminate myself. They asked me to sign a paper that had a diagram of the scooter accident I was in that I didn’t agree with. I felt coerced into signing it. They even told me that signing it does not equal agreeing with it.

This would be pretty funny if it wasn’t actually true. Sadly it’s a cornerstone of the Chinese bureaucratic world. Can’t count how many situations I have faced in the office that have followed a similar pattern. The person asking you to sign/chop the document usually claims that doing so signifies only that you have seen the document, not that you actually agree with it. Usually, in such cases, they don’t give a shit what you think.

I have found the FAP to be very, very helpful and gracious.